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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Mysterious Doctor Fischer

Another doctor who came to Canada from Nazi Germany is Dr. Martin Fischer, whose stellar career left a "harmful legacy" that some of his students are apparently still sorting out.

I learned about Dr. Fischer last year in a roundabout kind of way, when a judge, living in a small city in south-eastern Germany, suddenly contacted me. The judge, whom I will call Henry, had heard I was writing about secret Cold war experiments on children in Canada.

Henry appears to have been born in a Toronto mental hospital in 1959 or 1960, one of a series of illegitimate children fathered by Dr. Martin Fischer in bizarre experiments at Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Toronto.

When Henry was nearly 50, his adoptive parents told him the truth they had somehow managed to hide for decades: that he had been adopted, after his birth mother, a patient at Lakeshore, died in childbirth or shortly after. "Your real father was a Jewish doctor," said his adoptive mother, attempting to set the record straight on her deathbed. "They were experimenting on pregnant women at that hospital." After these cryptic remarks, his mother refused to speak any further on the question of Henry's birth, and remained silent til her death last year, in Germany, of cancer. His father had already died some years earlier.

Not long after the funeral, Henry flew to Toronto, and began contacting people there -- including the Jewish Genealogical Society, who told him the most likely candidate, and the only Jewish doctor at Lakeshore in the 1950s, was the celebrated Dr. Martin Fischer.

Anyone looking at Henry ought to have noticed he bore no resemblance whatsoever to the couple who had masqueraded as his parents all his life. But he happens to look quite a lot like Dr. Fischer, who became an influential figure through his work with the Children's Aid Society and later as the founder of the Canadian Art Therapy Institute with branches in Toronto and British Columbia. Dr. Fischer died in 1994, and his children, including a daughter who is a plastic surgeon in Toronto, refused to meet with Henry -- but sent their lawyer to question him.

During his brief conversation with the Fischer family attorney, Henry gathered that he was only one of a series of illegitimate Fischer children who have turned up over the years, looking for their father. He learned that Dr. Fischer came to Canada as a refugee from Nazi Germany in 1940, and spent time in a POW camp in Quebec before studying medicine in Toronto where he was "famous" for a time, after appearing in the 1967 NFB film, WARRENDALE.
Henry also learned a few strange facts about Toronto's Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, and its associated cemetery which contains the unidentified bodies of 1500 "patients" who died there during the Cold War.

Not knowing what else to do with these disturbing bits of information, Henry returned to Germany, where I met him last June.

He showed me documents which reveal his adoptive parents both worked at Lakeshore Psychiatric, and were in Canada during the exact same period -- 1953-64 -- when the MKULTRA program was in operation. His birth certificate, dated January 1960, appears to be a fake -- he believes he was actually born in 1959, and showed me a bizarre home movie from 1960 in which he appears as a large, talkative baby in a high chair at their home in New Toronto. His arrival was filmed by a friend of the family, and there is a voice-over narrative in German and broken English: "Der ist der Vater; this is the father; Die ist die Mutti -- she is the mother." Seriously, who films their own baby with a voice-over stating "I am this baby's mother" --

There was other footage of Henry as a boy on the ship back to Germany in June 1964 -- looking more like a 6-year-old than the 4-year-old he was supposed to be, not to mention that he was big for his age and very blond, unlike either parent.

Back in Germany, the family spent a year in Gottingen, and then moved to a town near Mannheim where they bought a new car and a large house. Not your typical struggling hospital workers. His father, a jack-of-all-trades who sidelined as a smuggler, went back to work for I.G. Farben -- yes, his dad had been an employee of the famous chemical firm in the early 1950s. Henry's mother went back to nursing, and with money that mysteriously arrived every month in a special bank account in Bremen, Henry was sent to the best schools in Germany. After a stint in the Air Force -- he failed to pass his officers' exams and was judged 'too emotional' for a military career -- he studied political science and co-founded the German Liberal Party with its current leader. From there, he began a career in media, which foundered when his partner suddenly died. In his late twenties, he went back to university to study law and is now a judge in Child Protection court.

Ironic, perhaps, that he now sometimes takes children away from their parents and places them in foster care.

Henry suggested I write about his story. But he strongly recommended I not mention anything about Nazi medicine. "Everyone is tired of hearing about that," he said. "And you need to make money."

Instead, he recommended I tell the story of his adoptive parents, and how his mother came to Canada aboard a refugee ship with several hundred patients who, Henry believes, were Jewish concentration camp survivors who spoke German. This would explain the fact that many of the nurses and staff at Lakeshore Psychiatric were German speaking. Henry believes these Jewish patients, for whom all records were destroyed in 1962 by the then-director, are the same people who are buried, three-deep, in unmarked graves in the hospital cemetery, which a group in Toronto are now attempting to "memorialize."

His theory: they were too badly damaged by their concentration camp experience, too sick and insane, to function anywhere other than a mental hospital run by German staff. Sending them on a ship to Canada was the easiest way to get rid of these victims, who otherwise would have posed a burden on Germany's struggling post-war economy -- or Israel's.

Henry's mother has a letter from a Jewish Refugee organization showing she had worked at one of their hospitals in Munich. The letter is signed by a doctor whose first name was Moses.

"Make it a story of hope," Henry exorted me. "Jewish refugees, insane and disoriented, travelling on a ship to Canada, to be taken care of for the rest of their lives at a mental hospital on a lake. Listening to the doctors and nurses, and looking out the window at the lawn and the trees, they probably think they are still in Germany."

"And the experiments on pregnant woomen?" I asked.

"Yes, mention those. And the fact that all 1500 of them ended up in a mass grave, with their names missing."

"And the fact that this hospital was run by doctors who worked for the Canadian military?"

"Yes, but leave out the Nazi stuff. Nobody's interested. And for the conclusion, you can add my other theory," continued Henry, who has a computer-like mind which he claims actually whirrs like a hard disk when it's working at top capacity. "That they destroyed the records in order to steal these Jewish patients' identities, and gave them to war criminals who were trying to enter Canada."

"War criminals, such as Nazi doctors."

"Yes, probably," said Henry. "But I want you to sell this book -- so leave that part out of it."

The above google link is from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. I'm repeating it here:http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwolffchild.wikispaces.com%2Ffile%2Fview%2FPassion%2Bof%2BSeeley%2B3.doc&rct=j&q=ben%20sadowsky%20%20martin%20fischer&ei=SAcRTtT7Fsnr0gHKpr3QBw&usg=AFQjCNFAguogG3OjwIeNcJaEX5yU0cRBWA&cad=rja

It takes you to a downloadable book by an anonymous writer and friend of the Fischer family, who is writing about a colleague of Dr. Fischer, a Toronto sociologist named John Seeley -- a self-described sadist and pedophile who hecame a cultural hero influencing a generation. Chapter Two describes Seeley's bizarre relationship with Fischer -- it's disturbing and revealing of how Canadian society was heavily influenced after the war by a shadowy club of men working for British intelligence and/or the CIA -- for reasons that need to be explored and understood, this secretive group were given free access to children, and allowed to formulate brave new theories on how they should be schooled and brought up.

John R. Seeley, Dr. Fischer's private 'patient' as well as "Canada' most brilliant sociologist" also shows up at the end of this article by Wayne Madsen, tracing Obama's CIA connections: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/12/special-report-obamas-hidden-links/

I am the writer of the anonymous book about Seeley. I did not intend for it to be read yet. I made the mistake of putting it on this wiki online so that I would not lose the content, but at that point I was naive about the web. It is a doctoral thesis at UofT, that is now complete but awaits defense. The parts online that have been read are unedited, and in some cases I have decided to omit and revise the content. I will attempt in the next year or so to publish it as a book on Seeley.

I am very curious about the 'experiments' involving Fischer and would appreciate contact with Ann Diamond about this.

Update: I recently heard from a former Warrendale kid, now in his fifties, who believes "mind control" in various forms was practiced during his 6-year stay there, during which he was deceived into thinking his mother had died.

He says students/inmates were encouraged to smoke, drink alcohol, swear, and engage in "sex play" by staff. Not only were certain adolescents bottle-fed, but required to wear diapers and forced to urinate/defecate in them. Sexual abuse and violence were common, and he believes LSD was used on students at Warrendale, as it was at other covert experimental projects with apparent approval by Canadian authorities.

He also says "holding" was an abusive technique, which is now discredited, and would continue until the child became "catatonic."

In exploring the Browndale website, I discovered the Tavistock Institute in London was very interested in Warrendale/Browndale: http://www.browndale.net/id42.html. Tavistock is notorious as the birthplace of the MKULTRA program. One of the goals of this institute was to break down the family unit, thereby weakening the individual and making him/her more open to brainwashing.

A very peculiar, barely coherent article on the need to "revolutionize" the family by Warrendale director John Brown can be found here: http://www.browndale.net/id41.html

John Brown, who later became an Ontario MP, was eventually convicted and imprisoned for real estate fraud.

I find it strange that Warrendale and its director John Brown seem so far to have escaped scrutiny, despite obvious links to MKULTRA-style experiments.

http://beyondmkultra.50megs.com/whats_new_10.html

I always find it interesting to note which MK-style programs began in 1953, the year MKULTRA was signed into existence by CIA director Allen Dulles.

A new wing of the Montreal Neurological Institute was completed in 1953, and until recently included a fresco depicting a human brain formed from the bodies of naked children -- it was recently removed when McGill expanded the facility.

John Brown (a man whose writings make him sound like a victim of communist brainwashing, but who most likely worked for the CIA) took over Warrendale, up to then a home for emotionally disturbed girls, and began changing its mission in the magic-MKULTRA year: 1953.

How did Seeley manage to become a psychoanalyst, on the heels of a distinguished academic career in Canada and the US, in which he seems to have wielded considerable power over all sorts of people, from media personalities to Prime Ministers.

Was he accredited or more of a "freelancer" like his mentor/analyst Dr. Fischer?

A brilliant career that, according to Paul Bentley, ended in a seedy neighbourhood in L.A. --

@Ms. Diamond. I am amazed that for some one who was never a resident, staff member or even family member of anyone connected is so intense about trying to suggest John Brown or Dr. Fischer were involved in any kind of experiments on children.

You seem to suggest that John Brown and Dr. Fischer just went around taking kids out of their homes.............sorry but I am still laughing over that one. How much research have you really done on where the children came from.

Other than what you saw on the screen what do you know about Walter Gunn or Terry Adler? Please share with your reaaders. What lurid info did you dig up about them?

How much research about what State of Child Care was in back then? What alternative options were available to these children?

Do you really believe John Brown and dr Fischer were just going around taking whatever kids they wanted? Silliness.

How much research did you do into the WARRENDALE TAKEOVER? John Brown's staff did not resign in masse and walk off leaving the kids behind. Government staff walked in and fired every staff member that worked under John Brown. They were ordered off the property and threatened with tresspass chargers.

The one thing I find people like you leave out in writing thses crtiques of a place they no nothing about. THE PROGRAMME WAS WORKING. The kids were responding, for many of the kids it was the first time they had ever been able to feel any degree of safety with adults. No one tied them down to mattress's or shot full of drugs and crying was ok. They still got meals ...........I could go on.

Would you like to see the original newspaper clippings before and after the take over. Please explain to me why the children went on a total rampage. The same children you claim were being experimented on and abused. They all ran, they ran to the staff that had been fired, they ran to Newmarket area where they knew John Brown was. Social workers called begging John to take their kids stuck at Warrendale. I was nine years old at Main House in Oakridges, I was never in Warrendale, went into Brown Camps in the weeks after the take over, anyway I remember Social Workers dropping kids off in the middle of the night. The juvenile courts were also sending kids.

Warrendale/Brown Camps/Browndale was far from perfect. One of John's belief was that nothing was written in stone. If something didn't work try something else. Each kid was different.

Everyone had their own experience, everyone got something different from it. For some it was bad. According the polls on the website the majority came away with good feelings and fond memories. Don't get me wrong, that does not negate that fact that there were kids who felt further traumatized. They are as welcome on the Browndale site as any other connected.

I am willing to read any links you can send verifying your claims I would be more than happy to read anything you have. Other than John Seely who according to you did a lot of guessing and assuming.

You are welcome to look at any of the original material I have that includes tapes of John's earliest work in the 50's up through the early 80's.

Dear Jenny,You seem to misunderstand my comments at the Torontoist site and this blog. I'm not suggesting any of the things you seem to imagine me seeing, e.g. about details of the takeover, or why Warrendale kids "went on a total rampage" and ran to Newmarket to look for John Brown -- but I'd like to hear your thoughts about that.

Also I'd be interested in knowing how many of the kids who were at Warrendale Court, or who appeared in the film, have been in touch with the Browndale website? My guess is, not many.

Correction: the link to the LA Times article quoting John Seeley on his recollections of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and calling him an 81-year-old West L.A. psychoanalyst is http://articles.latimes.com/1994-12-04/news/we-4637_1_free-speech-movement

"You seem to suggest that John Brown and Dr. Fischer just went around taking kids out of their homes............."

Nowhere do I say or suggest anything of the kind.

"Other than what you saw on the screen what do you know about Walter Gunn or Terry Adler? Please share with your reaaders. What lurid info did you dig up about them?"

I have not attacked either Walter Gunn or Terry Adler, anywhere. Walter comes across as very likeable through most of the film -- until the next-to-final scene where he and Terry have Carol pinned to the floor and are screaming in her face.

Terry, on the other hand, seems to take her mothering role extremely seriously -- I assume she was following John Brown's dictum that Warrendale and Browndale kids were to be "parented" by young non-professional staffers not much older than themselves.

Many Warrendale Court kids were "throwaways" who had fallen through the cracks of the social welfare/ child care system. It appears Brown, Fischer, Seeley et al saw a way to profit from these children: $100/day per child was a lot of money, given that the staff were untrained and probably received not much more than minimum wage. Maybe they helped some along the way -- as you say, they were fed.

Certain kinds of "rebirthing" and "regression" therapy -- as portrayed in the documentary -- are highly questionable and have been discredited over the years.

Warrendale's on-site "school" was reportedly staffed by only two teachers -- one was a former pro football player, and the other had worked in a circus and taught the children how to play strip pocker -- according to one former Warrendaler.

John Brown, Dr. Fischer, and John Seeley -- the three "thinkers" behind Warrendale -- all functioned over the years with false credentials. That's quite worrying, considering they were in charge of hundreds of young lives.

John Brown was later convicted for real estate fraud. Dr. Fischer's art therapy students remember him as abusive and unprofessional. John Seeley posed as a psychoanalyst after working for at least one CIA front organization in California.

Our likely future Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, was raised by his father with input and advice from John Seeley, who admitted to being a pedophile and sadist.

I must say Ann Diamond is crystal clear with her vision no rose tinted glasses here, and someone who has taken the time and energy to unmask the engima of John Brown and his associates with not only Warrendale but he went on to establish Brown Camps and Browndale…and all done by an outsider, she herself was never a victim of his wisdom with emotionally disturbed children…but she dares to unravel the web of deceit and lies, and for that I applaud her as I can finally get a glimpse of what really happened 48 years ago to me and my family that was destroyed in the process, that actually makes any sense out of my senseless nightmare I’ve been living all these years. Yes some of the kids actually had families they all weren’t castoffs, throwaways, waywards…I was one of those victims years ago, held captive for more than 4 years but still is fresh in my mind as yesterday, it took turning 16 and running away to accomplish my goal of freedom, I was not in Warrendale…I was in the new Brown Camps where John Brown and his associates had more liberty of practising their craft, a private school for emotionally disturbed adolescents(with many locations of homes) and I was only 11 years old(hardly an adolescent), and never diagnosed with any sort of mental illness then or now, never on any medications as many of the children were…so how does a kid like that end up in a place like that??? Pure greed, a financial arrangement- money makers for the cult and parents who were ill equipped to deal with John Brown and all his jargon of magical wisdom, after all there is something wrong with me – but now I know about Dr. Martin Fischer’s connection(courtesy of Ann Diamond), very interesting to me as this SHRINK had total control of all the kids fate( mine included no exemptions ) I know I was not an expert(although I would become one with exemplary skills) but even to a 11 year old kid I knew something was up, nothing NORMAL about him and I never trusted him…always wanting to invade my mind with dreams and offering pop and cookies( even staff constantly at you about dreams), I never took any and it would take a couple of years for me to tell him about my dreams, so you tell me who was disturbed. I have obtained my files from my time spent there, not much in it no medical notes at all just a bunch of crap written by mindless robots that were masquerading as staff that should have been in care themselves after all some of the staff (male/ female) were either sexual deviants, pedophiles, sociopaths or social misfits some were draft dodgers from the states and some were what I thought normal all hiding under the cover of John Brown and his associates so protected from the public eye to carry out these new practices that will eradicate emotionally disturbed children. This so F……ED- UP place was well hidden, some were housed in normal communities with 4 kids to a home(Warrendale type setting) and then there was the ones that would be warehoused in very secluded areas with 12 kids in a farm or lodge style setting very cult appearance and behaviours associated with cults...pg.1

Well I can tell you that the kids that were in the Warrendale film, only one that I’m aware of is still alive, and if he reads this I hope he contacts Ann Diamond with his story… Imagine the kids in the film- who asked their permission to film them, were they paid…no just exploited in a very cruel way for the public to see no possible gain for the children, who gained??? Even if the children gave permission or were paid, how that could be possible they are EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED, and even in those days I’m sure those standards would not have been accepted by anyone who is truly working with good ethics. Yes I’m questioning Alan King’s ethics as he is also one of John Brown’s associates and a member of the Board of Directors as Dr. Fischer was as well. That movie is nothing but a sham to tame pure fiction all staged for you the public (I can’t watch it - makes me so angry), if you really want to know what happened in that acid experiment just ask the kids who survived it and I ask those kids who have survived to please come forward with their stories, I’m sure they will be very telling. Not all came away with rose tinted glasses most I’m sure have a much more jaded vision. Actually most of the kids ran from this past in the early days but now with aging I hope they can see they can leave their footprint - make a difference and leave this world a better place for the future children that will pass through the same types of doors we did so long ago, after all it could be our grandchildren in the same dark pit of hell. pg.2

I say…time for THE DIRTY LAUNDRY TO HANG FOR ALL TO SEE ...that’s the road to be taken, silence allows for more to happen…and it is happening to other kids as I write this and that should scare the crap out of the general public who think that this has nothing to do with them…these kids grow up become adults in our society functioning or not. After all Charles Manson would be a perfect example of one of these kids, trapped in a system who was supposed to care for him and look what happened to him and his unsuspecting victims (including his so called followers), but no one questions the wisdom of those who set his fate…why would they he is so locked up and will never taste freedom again, not that he ever really had any freedom. It is those very same types of minds that set his motions into action, something to think about. Something else to think about Toronto’s 1977 shoeshine boy murder, Saul Betesh masterminded the whole crime and he came from Brown Camps and according to his very rich Jewish family, this was the place he flourished and I was just a little kid in his shadows back then…I wonder what he did to little boys who would have been so defenceless to his advances…and yes there are more criminals manufactured to perfection that came from John Brown’s vision of fostering a FAMILY ROLE MODEL…just look into the jail system you will either find them or find that they died in that system, most went from one institution to another …their outbursts that were so encouraged in all the HANDLING SESSIONS didn’t do them much good when it came to dealing with the real world that they would eventually be thrust into-no tolerance for that kind of behaviour. I don’t wonder why the kids did bad things when they got out rather I wonder why not…after all we were never disciplined or held accountable for bizarre behaviours so how were we to know society wouldn’t tolerate it…no preparation for the real world and now we wouldn’t be treated as juveniles our mistakes would be faced alone (family ties broken) in the adult system and the skills that we would learn from our nightmares only made matters worse except if you landed in the big house, as those skills would prove to be valuable there. Just look to the jail system and see what’s inside…society has created it by not holding the higher ups accountable allowing them to lurk in the shadows and carry on experiments as they prosper both socially and financially, all at the expense of some poor kid in the system for whatever reason. Keep in mind most of these kids did nothing wrong just paying the price for their parents’ sins, which was the inability of not been able to look after their children; this also will haunt the kids into their adulthoods…why were we not wanted??? I know for me, my family never much spoke of what happened to me…but they have said the person I was before I went there is not the same person that came out. I would have to agree I wasn’t emotionally disturbed when I went into that NIGHTMARE but I would be when I got out. This is exactly what I mean when applauding Ann, she truly is my hero, a jack-pot of information that has been well researched and done with such brilliant amazing clarity. pg.3

Thank-you Ann as I would never been able to articulate as well as you…but I hope to one day, you inspire me and I encourage you with revealing the TRUTH…it’s the legacy that I’d like to leave behind so my footprint and so many others footprints will not be forgotten…yes many have since passed some while in care, some in early adulthood and then there is the ones that are so lost out there. Bringing this to the forefront may very well help some of the lost ones make some sense of what really happened to them and hopefully help the ones who have the rose tinted glasses adjust their views so clarity prevails and halts it from happening to our future generations…leave the world in a better place so it never ever happens again. It’s the right thing to do and the only thing that can possibly make sense out of what took place so many years ago. A NIGHTMARE FINALLY PUT TO REST…and maybe we will be able to have some peace of mind as our life’s go on…and maybe even dare to dream of happiness, as I know I never learned what that was in that HELL HOLE and pretty sure I’d have a lot who would agree.Just my opinion, would like to know other kids views…only the ones not wearing rose tinted glasses, those ones I have no time for as I believe they are in denial(or another type of experiment of Dr. Fischer) and I don’t have that kind of patience(I know what I saw, heard and lived), of course they can post what they like…I just won’t be reading any of it, it’s taken a long time for me to grasp the actual horrors and cleanse my mind and what’s left is all for me, not one moment will be spent in denial…I never ever was in denial I knew when I was a kid something was very wrong, but no one would listen…after all I was labelled EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED who was ever going to believe me, so ashamed and embarrassed of what happened to me I just buried it deep inside and tried to build a life for myself that would make sense, one that involved running from my past as if that could ever be possible… or was that Dr. Fischer’s intent…his experiment-- one of many…pg.4

Thanks so much for this eloquent post, which I'm rereading, Turtle Murtle. It confirms a lot and also explains why I never can watch Warrendale without feeling sick. What does this say about Canadian values and the values of our media? I really hope you write a book about your Browndale years. I'd love to be the first to review it!

I am a Warrendale kid. I, to this day have issues and a lot of anger as to how I was treated,ignored and disregarded. Dr. Fisher was my Doctor and I have my files of my stay in Warrendale as well as Thistletown, Lakeshore Psych and Browndale. To this day I suffer from PTSD because of my treatment. Back in the sixties things were so much different and things that today would be unacceptable then were the norm or the newly discovered. The saddest of all to me are the children who have grown up damaged because of treatment received or the lack of. I believe Ann, that you spoke to my friend from Warrendale(won't mention his name here) I am also still in contact with the poster child of the movie Warrendale. We all experienced different treatment at the hands of Dr. Fisher and the Browns,In my case, some good and rewarding most just sad and hurtful. Unfortunately I am left with memories I can do nothing about and anger that I have to let go of, which isn't gone just filed away festering. But I thank you Ann for all the research you have done, I know how daunting that can be. It's heart warming to know someone has done the work. Bravo

I stumbled upon this while searching out resources on MKUltra in Canada. I'm digging into what might still be buried away (literally and figuratively) at the Allen Memorial and using contacts at the Neurological Institute to do so.I was trained by Dr. Fischer in the late 80's and find this fascinating. I am not taking a position on this one way or another, though based upon some arguments I had with him, he seems a different person that described here. However, I don't ever dismiss evidence and am keeping an open mind on the matter. Thank you for posting all of this.

I stumbled upon this while searching out resources on MKUltra in Canada. I'm digging into what might still be buried away (literally and figuratively) at the Allen Memorial and using contacts at the Neurological Institute to do so.I was trained by Dr. Fischer in the late 80's and find this fascinating. I am not taking a position on this one way or another, though based upon some arguments I had with him, he seems a different person that described here. However, I don't ever dismiss evidence and am keeping an open mind on the matter. Thank you for posting all of this.

I stumbled upon this while searching out resources on MKUltra in Canada. I'm digging into what might still be buried away (literally and figuratively) at the Allen Memorial and using contacts at the Neurological Institute to do so.I was trained by Dr. Fischer in the late 80's and find this fascinating. I am not taking a position on this one way or another, though based upon some arguments I had with him, he seems a different person that described here. However, I don't ever dismiss evidence and am keeping an open mind on the matter. Thank you for posting all of this.